While my parents were visiting, they helped get our yard and garden under control. In the corner by the porch steps, Mom cut back a rhododendron which left a big section of dirt exposed. Then I dug up the side flower bed that’s been overrun with grass for the past few years. So there is currently a lot of dirt in the yard for Linc to play with. He is pretty excited about it.

Dirty AND a runny nose. He’s two.

If you ever needed reassurance that being a stay at home mom is a real job with a long list of responsibilities, come down with the stomach flu for 24 hours or so.
Despite the fact that I’ve been on a de-junking spree for all of 2017, the number of baby toys, kid socks, coats, backpacks, cups, straws, books, markers, pieces of paper, Legos, hair accessories and other random flotsam and jetsom that ended up strewn about my house was incredible. One day without putting away laundry and suddenly there’s laundry piles everywhere. I didn’t even eat or make food all day and somehow there was still a pile of dishes in the sink.
I did manage to keep two babies alive for most of that time. I mean, they were alive for all of that time, but once E got home mid-afternoon I fell into bed until my fever broke.
Luckily, by Friday morning I had enough energy to eat an English muffin, which made me feel 100% better and I got back to my adulting. We managed to more than make up for my lost time by Saturday evening and once again I am going to bed with the dishes done, the floor ready for the robot vacuum, and more adulting projects complete. The ultimate goal is to get the house SO clean and SO organized that one day of illness wouldn’t leave me with a disaster. But I suspect getting to that point is going to have more to do with no longer having a 2-year-old in the house than getting rid of more stuff.

Speaking of the 2-year-old, look at this ridiculous hat.

This is just the past week.

1. Taken off all his clothes and his diaper and peed on his brother’s bed.
2. Taken off all his clothes and his diaper and pooped in the play tent.
3. Taken off all his clothes and his diaper and rolled around on his sister’s bed naked for an indeterminate amount of time before I found him and he denied peeing anywhere but I am suspicious.
4. Pooped in the bathtub.
5. Intentionally poured his sippy cup of milk all over the iPad.
6. Drew on himself with blue marker.
7. Drew on himself with pink marker.
8. Drew on the dining room walls with pink marker.
9. Drew on the bedroom walls with pencil.
10. Dumped a bag of chips on the dining room floor.
11. Dropped a towel in the sink and then left the water running.
12. Rubbed lotion all over the bathroom.
13. Blew bubbles in his chocolate milk until it spilled everywhere.
14. Jammed orange peels into part of Finnegan’s exersaucer I can’t get them out of.
15. Refused to stay in his bed at night.
16. Refused to stay in his sister’s bed at night.
17. Refused to stay in his brother’s bed at night.
18. Refused to let anyone in the house sleep because he felt like screaming.
19. Demanded I get him more cereal to eat even though he was currently eating cereal.
20. Cried because I wouldn’t let him watch two tablets at once.
21. Run away at Target.
22. Run away at the grocery store.
23. Run away at Home Depot.
24. Pulled his sister’s hair until she cried.
25. Punched his older brother in the face.
26. Climbed up the dresser and stood in the drawers until they broke.
27. Dumped half a canister of salt on the kitchen floor.
28. Licked the wall mirror.
29. Licked the television set.
30. Licked the baby.
31. Licked a box of cereal at the store.
32. Picked up the cat and carried her around like she was a sack of potatoes.
33. Pull the play tool bench out of the closet and thrown all the pieces all around the room seven different times.
34. Opened several packs of kid card games, ripped up the boxes and spread the cards all over the house.
35. Banged on my laptop until he deleted what I was working on, messed up my desktop, sent random emails and changed all my settings.